“We expect this investment and new process to save customers time. And, since customers can operate the biometric-based bag drop machine independently, we see a future where Delta agents will be freed up to seek out travellers and deliver more proactive and thoughtful customer service.”

Delta says it will collect customer feedback during the self-service bag drop trial, and “run process analyses to ensure that this lobby enhancement improves the overall customer experience”. The carrier points to studies showing that self-service bag drops “have the potential to process twice as many customers per hour”.